Starbuck vs. The Empress; Oligarchs On Wisconsin
There are any number of garden-variety, Beltway sages and seers ready and willing (if not able) to opine on the 2012 presidential campaign — but only Calbuzz offers prognostication on what concerns our readers most: the 2018 Democratic nomination race for governor.
Sticking to their previous prognosis that a second-term Governor Gandalf will still be doing pull-ups at 80 (as well as their prediction that California Republicans by then will be scarcer than snowy plovers), our Department of Logarithmic Forecasting and Necromantic Foreboding confirms that the intraparty gubernatorial brawl between Attorney General Kamala Harris and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom will be the key race to watch that year.
“We can predict a Harris-Newsom contest with a 98.6% level of confidence,” said our public opinion research chief, Marc DiCassare. “We further forecast that the state deficit at that point will be $4.65 trillion.”
Today, Calbuzz presents the first in an occasional series of special reports updating the race between Lieutenant Starbuck and the Empress of River City. At a time when the electorate is beginning to form its crucial first impression, we examine how they are introducing themselves to Californians, based mostly on a hard-hitting analysis of the constant stream of press releases churned out by their taxpayer-financed flacks.
January 18:
“Settlement gives California authority to provide oversight on $30 billion telecommunications joint venture.”
“Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the launch of a statewide higher education listening tour and an online campaign that will engage Californians in a public dialogue, seeking their feedback and suggestions on issues relating to the state’s higher education system.”
February 2 – 3
LOS ANGELES – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced a $6.5 million settlement of a predatory lending case against Angelo Mozilo and David Sambol, former officers of Countrywide Financial Corporation. Attorney General Harris announced the settlement money will be used to establish an innovative statewide California Foreclosure Crisis Relief Fund to combat the effects of California’s high rates of foreclosure and mortgage delinquency.”
Newsom: “Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom Issues Statement on Lunar New Year
Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom issued the following statement today regarding Lunar New Year:
‘To everyone across California and the world who is celebrating the arrival of the Lunar New Year today, Jennifer and I want to extend our best wishes for a prosperous and healthy Year of the Rabbit.'”
Feb. 14-16
Harris: “Harris: Suspects Arrested in Murder-for-Hire Plot Commissioned by Mexican Drug Cartel
PALMDALE – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced the arrest today of three suspects in a foiled murder-for-hire plot commissioned by a Tijuana drug cartel.”
February 21-22
LOS ANGELES – Seeking environmental justice for all Californians, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case in support of efforts by the Port of Los Angeles to reduce air pollution through its Clean Trucks program.”
Newsom: “Apple dish: A spy in Manhattan tells us he ran across Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom last weekend shopping for ties in the men’s department at the swank Bergdorf Goodman store.
Newsom’s office confirms the couple did take a “private trip” back East last week for the screening of Jennifer’s new documentary, “Miss Representation.” They also attended a showing of new designers at New York’s semiannual Fashion Week.” (h/t Matier and Ross).
Astute analysis: At this point, it’s not really a fair fight.
Not only does the AG have, you know, an actual job, but her public story is largely being told by the wily James A. Finefrock III, chief flack for the Department of Justice and a battl
e-hardened veteran of the throwback Chron-Ex War of Words; Starbuck’s pub shop meanwhile thinks it’s a cool idea to e-blast a press release wishing everyone Gung Hay Fat Choy.
(Calbuzz training tip for the young ‘uns: carefully study this video of your guy’s famous interview with our old friend Hank Plante, then make Gavin start doing everything exactly the opposite).
Round 1 bottom line: Harris +4.
On Wisconsin: There are exactly two words to describe the sickening spectacle of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s vicious move against public employees in the Cheesehead State: Union Busting.
Walker is one of the favorite, lickspittle running dogs of the Koch Brothers, the greedhead polluters and social Darwinists who are the most visible players in the ultra-rich, right-wing effort to make oligarchy the law of the land in the U.S.
Not content that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans have grabbed nearly 25% of its wealth, thanks to decades of tax cuts for the wealthy and increasingly profitable banks and global corporations, the Kochs and their cadre now aggressively blame middle class workers for the Wall Street-triggered recession and, in the process, are pushing to destroy the last vestiges of trade unionism and all that it implies, as Paul Krugman notes:
In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.
Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions.
You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy. Indeed, if America has become more oligarchic and less democratic over the last 30 years — which it has — that’s to an important extent due to the decline of private-sector unions.
And now Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to get rid of public-sector unions, too.
More recommended reading: Gene Robinson and Ezra Klein in the Washpost.
Polling footnote: Rasmussen’s at it again, loading up its polling to support the Republican position on the debate over collective bargaining by public employees. Best evidence from impartial and also from Democratic connected pollsters finds that about six in 10 voters in Wisconsin and throughout the country reject the drive to do away with this fundamental labor right.
For a change, I think Krugman’s commentary is fairly moderate. Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of this when I was a mere child. It has been happening for a long time. As in Libya, the time has simply come when these spoiled brats think that nobody will have the temerity to stand up to them. They have had their way for so long, on so many fronts, that they feel invincible.
What Wal-Mart is beginning to see, however, is the price of putting the squeeze on 99% of the population. While not as august a presence as a president of the United States, the guys at JibJab nailed this one some years ago with a ditty called “Oh Big Box Store.” It foretold the end of the race to the bottom–consumers who could no longer afford your stuff, no matter how cheap. As JibJab predicted, the bargain hunters who have fed the Walton fortunes can no longer afford to shop there. And sales have stagnated or dropped. The millions whose jobs were lost when they were moved to low-wage countries can no longer buy the crap at any price.
Yes, the wealthy can still retreat to gated resorts in Rancho Mirage or Sharm al Sheikh. But, as parts of the world sinks under rising waters, as countries fall to food riots because of alternating floods and droughts, and hordes of homeless make towns and cities look like something out of Mad Max, they will be trapped in their gated mansions. Guarded, as the mad colonel of Libya is, by mercenary troops. Providing their own basic infrastructure as public services fall for lack of tax revenues. Even millionaires need water and sewage treatment. Even corporations need roads, ports, and airports. But millionaires pay big bucks for lobbyists and captive politicians who will cut their taxes. And corporations have gone from paying 80% of U.S. tax revenues to 20% by using the same strategy. Many of the most profitable, of course, pay none. Since they’re unwilling to pay for the services they need by paying taxes, they will increasingly not have them as the growing ranks of unemployed cannot.
This is the end result of short-sighted greed. And we are approaching it as people who care nothing for others increasingly control our country.
Our country has faced similar issues in the past. The 1920s saw the apex of similar income disparities in the U.S. And the same sort of callous greed lead to the greatest economic calamity the country had ever seen. The same people, doing the same things, seem eager to repeat history.
But only those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. We do not have to. I am thrilled to see that people all around the country are starting to wake up to the peril we face, and are confronting it head on.
Silly Season 7 years long?
The Gavster needs to play up his job on State Lands Commission to score more points.